The Hoxton

Oh god I can’t believe a place like this has managed to survive in this area. Had one of the worst experiences of my life here, and I don’t have many of them. I came here to see Bonobo with my good friends on New Years Eve and it was terrible. Don’t even get me started on Bonobo’s set, that’s another story for another day. Back to Hoxton: 40 minute line-​up outside at 10:30, and 25 minute line-​up for coat check. Coat check staff were rude and refused to give me the rest of my money. Crowd was bad enough to allow themselves to push each other sporadically throughout the night if they felt like it. Never EVER going back again.

There’s a special place in hell for female bartenders who don’t serve ladies! (small Caucasian bartender with long brown hair, 2015 Nov 26 for Slow Magic & Co.) She made eye contact with me before serving three men who came after me.
Also $ 10 for a can of Coors? Oy vey.
Because of how slow staff were, a huge line started forming and we listened to the show from the line (thru glass pane windows…). A bouncer tried to gyp people into paying $ 10 to skip the line, so I guess it was all part of their strategy.
Crappy venue, extortionist pricing. Can’t wait til this gets turned into a condo.

Was here on Halloween night. Bouncer was extremely rude and unprofessional. Wouldn’t let me in with my friends and kept telling me to relax and wait. I was relaxed and didn’t have a drop of alcohol. Although, music was great and enjoyed the atmosphere ! But wouldn’t come back, I don’t want to wait in line alone while my friends are inside.

The Hoxton is a nightclub and occasional concert venue at King and Bathurst. I don’t listen to EDM at all and I was here for a show. One of my favorite indie rock bands, DIIV had a show here and to be honest I was hesitant about coming here. I knew of the Hoxton’s reputation of a nightclub but was unsure of how it would be as a concert venue.
I ultimately decided to give it a chance and go, I lined up about half an hour before doors and when doors opened I was patted down and searched which I assume is because it’s a nightclub first a little invasive for just a concert…
When I got into the main area I was not impressed, it’s a narrow rectangle shaped space with the washrooms at the very back which isn’t convenient at all. The bar is at the side and for some reason there’s massive pillars in front of it which can block your view of the stage. The layout is really bad for a venue.
The stage is also very small and the sound was just OK there was some issues during some of the opening bands’ sets but nothing really major and DIIV sounded pretty good.
The staff here are rude and unprofessional which I would expect from a nightclub, instead of letting people inside at 8 PM they were late for no real reason other than to converse amongst themselves.
Later after the show was finished I was talking to DIIV at the bar and out of nowhere security comes up to me and says «you need to wrap it up we’re clearing out, you have to leave» I thought this was incredibly rude, I wasn’t planning on talking to them long anyways like a few minutes at most. Thankfully I wasn’t the only person they did this to but it was in my opinion incredibly unprofessional there were NO other events going on that night so there was no reason for security to kick everyone out IMMEDIATELY after the show was finished, I hung around maybe 10 – 15 minutes after the show was finished and there was still a lot of people who wanted to meet the band and buy merch.
The only real positive about the Hoxton is that it was easy to get to, take the subway to St Andrew station, take the 504 King streetcar to King and Bathurst and it’s right there.
I didn’t enjoy the venue, and the Hoxton while not as bad as some other venues in Toronto like Sound Academy was still pretty bad. It has an absolutely horrendous layout a tiny stage and rude, arrogant staff. I won’t be back.

Came here for the MDBP all stars party and had a blast! Diplo showed up at the end too! Waited a bit to get inside which was typical of any large club but once inside was able to get drinks quickly and navigate through the crowd. Staff was friendly and the bartender helped my friend find her lost cell phone, Would definitely come back again!

Its a small club, with a pretty poor sound system and very very minimal décor. Apparently haven’t changed for years. The layout is a rectangle with booths lined around. You’re literally partying in what is literally a small warehouse lined with a few displays and drywall. As said by others, washrooms are pretty clammy. The best redeeming feature of this club is its promoter, embrace, who regularly books big names to this club.
I feel like they’re trying to appeal to the trashiest side of club life. When I went for dj snake, bartenders would use the draft beer dispenser while standing on the bar to spray beer on the crowd. This happened about twice. You could probably get in with a t-​shirt and jeans. Top 40’s. The crowd is pushy. Smelled like weed. The MC wanted a mosh pit. Etc. You get the idea.
That having said, Dj snake was pretty good, so I had a good time otherwise. I have a feeling it would feel much nicer if renovated, to some kind of standard at least like uniun. but their target audience likely doesn’t care about that at all. So if you’re into this kinda stuff, go for it.

Oh boy, the Hoxton… They get quite a few good acts because of their promoter (Embrace) but get everything else wrong. After going to the Disclosure after party here my girlfriend and I nearly got crushed by a mob of people desperately trying to get out. So when they get good acts they oversell the venue and have no good planning and organization to deal with the volume. The people definitely don’t help either… Ah, the people here… Young douche bags, bros and girls who care more about their makeup than dancing. It’s not King St. W. bad but not too far off. It’s the «» «Hipster «» «version (i use many many air quotes on that one, because these people probably think Lana Del Rey is the height of art) of a bad club district joint. Like everyone said the layout is horrible, it’s consistently oversold and overcrowded, the sound system is mediocre (although I heard they upgraded it) and the staff are not welcoming. The only time I’d recommend frequenting this establishment is when you’re absolutely desperate to see the act they’ve booked or you want to go listen to trap music with you’re bros or whatever horrible stuff they do on off nights.

What a dogsh-​t excuse of a nightclub/​concert venue. How on earth does this place have three stars? Perplexing. It supposedly has a good sound system, but you really can’t tell because the layout completely demolishes any semblance of decent acoustics.
If you can manage to get in after being held in line, verbally abused by the bouncers, and judged head-​to-​toe by the door staff, you walk into a skinny rectangle of a venue, and probably have little to no view of whoever is playing. You are also surrounded by young stunnas… Definitely some underage folks.
Truly a dream come true. Have fun!

Honestly this place sucks. Who even designed it? Worst layout ever. The space is just not functional. The booths are WAY too squishy. You can’t comfortably walk around in that one shitty room. I don’t understand why such good DJs spin here, I’ve seen numerous shows and it does nothing for the audience and does no justice to the DJs. I’ve seen blasterjaxx a few times and their worst set was at the Hoxton. The light shows here are balls too.

Saw xxyyxx here. Line up was huge even for ticket holders. Cost check was 5 dollars. Crowd was a mix between devoted fans and regular (cough ratchet cough) club goers which made the experience pretty horrible. Sound wasn’t the greatest especially when some no name DJ came on after blasting his tunes. Venue is smaller than what you would expect.

Rude staff, rude bouncers, bad layout, bad sound, over priced drinks

Honestly, this place is a good venue w good acts but the staff is revolting. Rude, stupid and petty. Turning down money so they can feel important, a bunch of underpaid, wannabe video girls who pay their rent w my money but don’t have the decency to be polite while taking it. Banging into ppl, laughing in their faces, looking them up and down. I’ve truly never seen anything like it in the city of Toronto. They make the place trashy and unbearable.
I doubt the owners care or that they fire ppl over Unilocal reviews hahaha but if they happened to see this, I hope they can teach their staff money is money, it doesn’t matter if it comes from a basketball player or a group of girls. Total losers.

Place is the worst. Amongst my friends its known as the most loathed club in Toronto. People specifically avoid it even if Embrace brings in DJ’s they like. It’s known as a club people «put up with»
Here’s the problems:
1. The layout of the club is long and narrow. With the stage at the far end. There is a bar on the left side and a bar on the right side near the stage. When the place gets busy or even half full this creates a bottle-​neck towards the front half the venue. There is little room to dance, the club becomes more like a moshpit of bodies. With the bathroom at the very back of the venue if you are near the front and have to piss then its an epic trek through a ton of people to try and squeeze your way back and through the bottleneck.
2. The sound isn’t good. Hoxton advertised they installed a supposedly great PK Sound system a while back. I’ve been there twice in the last few months and the sound overall has seemed sub-​par. I was there on Friday and the back half of the club barely had any sound. The monitors/​speakers in the ceiling closer to the doors didnt sound turned on. So you can either be in the middle of the venue, have a bit of space, and not have great sound but maybe a bit of room to dance, and not see much on stage (again…long /​narrow venues have this problem — see Sound Academy) OR go a bit closer to the front of the venue and be crammed like its a mosh pit. OR be at the back of the bar and not hear/​see anything. If you’ve been to the Sound Academy, the Hoxton is seriously like a ¼ size version of that place. But Sound Academy is even easier to navigate with better sound (for a venue of that size), Hoxton is worse.
3. The whole vibe of the club is directed towards bottle service. I was there on Friday. When I was there on Friday, As the club slowly filled up the entire large front right second bar and side-​stage area was roped off and totally empty. A spot with two bottle service booths and room for a good 60 – 70 people to stand was just vacant despite it getting crammed in the main part of the club. Didn’t make sense to have it all roped off and have the second bar not running when the main bar was having delays and lineups. I asked the staff when I left what was up with that and they told me the side stage area /​bar is roped off in case someone decides to get bottle service. They won’t allow anyone in there to stand/​dance (or heaven forbid sit) unless they buy bottle service. It was 1am at this point so it seemed kind of pointless to keep it closed on the contingency someone wants to drop $ 600 and beyond on a couple of bottles — nevermind the fact the venue had over 350 people in it the front half the club (where the sound was ok and not shitty) was getting to be crowded and a bottle-​neck towards the stage. So instead of opening up a large area for the crowd to divert to, and the second bar (for people to buy their expensive drinks), they keep it closed for «prospective» bottle service customers.
So effectively the club is willing to sacrifce the potential comfort and enjoyment of the 350 people in attendance to possibly appease 5 people who «might» decide, spontaneously to buy bottle service at 1am. So greedy, so stupid.
4. Drinks are expensive. I don’t think I’ve ever paid $ 8 for a Molson Canadian in a club ever. Even at the Guvernment Complex where prices are sort of high would they charge that much. But at the Hoxton you will pay that much. And if you give the bartender a $ 10 bill for that beer they will give you a twoonie change. Not two loonies (so you can tip em a buck), a twoonie so they expect you to tip them $ 2 on your beer. So, they think $ 10 for a beer is reasonable. It’s a club, not the Rogers Centre. Mixed drinks are also crazy expensive. Want a redbull and vodka? Make sure you have $ 15 or more ready. Also when they don’t open the right front bar, expect big waits for drinks at the bar.
5. Bathrooms are at the back of the venue and small and crammed and they have the annoying bathroom attendants there who expect money to hand you a paper towel
6. Since the club is right at Bathurst and King St, the outdoor smoking area is right on the street and be prepared for all sorts of homeless/​weirdos to solicit you for money if you are outside having a smoke or in line to get into the club.
Overall I am SHOCKED that this place has a 3.5 average on Unilocal.Amongst my group or friends/​aquaintances its commonly known that the Hoxton is a pretty brutal venue and I’m literally bewildered so many people here view it favorably. I will not be going back anytime soon. They’d literally need to book something insane to draw me back. Aphex Twin opening for Chemical Brothers opening for Daft Punk — sure I’ll come. Otherwise, AVOID.

They have a no re-​entry policy. This, ladies and gentlemen, absolutely ruined my evening and costed me a hundred dollars last Friday, at the Kaytranada show.
So I show up early at 10, get my tickets, and then wanted to go out and come back closer to when Kaytranada would be playing his set (1 AM) only to discover AFTER I have paid that we would not be allowed to leave and come back even though we had a stamp on our wrists.
What’s the point of the stamp then? Why would you not disclose this at the door?
If someone at the management of the Hoxton sees this, please contact me. I want my money back. I was so miserable after 2 hours that I never even caught the set that I paid good money for.

Pretty cool venue — it’s super laid back, and not really uptight like some other clubs on the area. Came here for a concert on a Friday night. The venue was pretty crowded, but not so uncomfortably squeezed that we couldn’t dance.
Chill place to dance and check out the music. Wouldn’t recommend bottle service — the tables are far away and not very well located if you’re there for the music.
A warning — by the end of the night, the bathroom was DISGUSTING. It was overflowing and clogged, with a gross cocktail of tampons and poop and vomit. Do your business early or wait until you get home!

Fist pumping, hipster kind of place. It’s not really for me but friends liked the house music. Nightlife was popping and people actually danced and enjoyed themselves.
Drinks were strong and lines were not.

Overall, a very solid music venue.
Sound quality is ok. It’s good, and definitely does not hurt your ears. However, I think about half of the artists I’ve seen there have had technical difficulties. So they might be able to improve.
Lineups are generally pretty fast. They seem to let people in as quickly as possible. Coat check is efficient considering the rush at the end of the night.
The drinks tend to be fairly weak

First visit to Hoxton and what a night, everything is how it should be here quick entrance, good music and no hassle crowd. Real fist pumping vibe and I suppose makes the $ 20 cover worth it. Also being where it is the location is convenient and the dress code pretty chilled, not too fancy at all.
It is what it is I just wish the coat check was quicker.

First off… I LOVE THE HOXTON!
I’m shocked that only one other person has given The Hoxton full stars. My friend said that if I didn’t give this place full stars he would punch me in the face (I hope he was joking)…not like I wasn’t going to give this place ⁵⁄₅.
A group of us chose The Hoxton because we wanted to see 2 WOPS (Nari and Milani) perform and check out this new venue that we haven’t been to before. We arrived pretty early because we thought there was gonna be a long lineup. There was no line at all and the club didn’t get full until around 12.
They play only house, which is our favourite! There was not one song that we did not like. The Hoxton is sorta like Guv… but way smaller and more intimate. There’s also no sketchy/​drugged up people (y). Nari and Milani didn’t get on until 12:30 but even the local Dj before them were great! The Dj booth was right up front and not high up like at Guv. Did I mention that my friends put me on their shoulders and brought me to Nari and Milani? I got to high five them both! Amazing!
I had sooo much fun that I never even used the washroom haha. I think we all know where the new hotspot for us is now.

BOTTOM LINE: Easily one of the best venues in town for EDM; it’s also way less sketchy than the Guv. Indie bands also make an appearance on a routine basis.
Ever since the Hoxton opened up, they’ve been having a steady stream of solid lineups ranging from indie bands to big name EDM DJs like A-​Trak and Laidback Luke. While the Guv still is the place to go for the really big shows, the Hoxton is better in so many more ways:
–the crowd is way more attractive
–the crowd is way less sketchy (no 50-​something Asian dude high as a kite and/​or trying to get you there as well)
–the venue is more centrally located, which allows you A) to have more options for your midnight munchies, and B) to be closer to the afterparty if that’s your thing (aka, CZ, after hours, and of course, the Guv is always an option!)
The sound system is solid, the dance floor is spacious, the bar space is plenty and the coat check ISN’T a clusterfkk (unlike so many other places). I’ve never had problems with dress code, though if you’re the sort of person to suit it up, learn to tie a bowtie — it’ll be more fun that way.